Sims Backs Tax Increase for Roads
In the latest editorial column from the precinct 3 county Commissioner Heath Sims, the last sentence is telling: "...there is no other option than coming to the taxpayers again and requesting a multi-million bond election."
Sims is up for re-election next year, but no clear name has come up as far as a primary opponent. That might change with this latest editorial. We love Heath, we support him tremendously in the questions he asks and the votes he has made. But you have to figure that talking about another tax increase (bonds=tax increase) when the last county bond only passed by a few hundred votes might not be such a great idea.
Bardwell Mayor Accused of Urinating in Woman's Yard
The funniest blog in Ellis County is talking about some not-so-untrue things, specifically the mayor of Bardwell allegedly urinating on a woman's front porch.
Phil Smart to Appear Before Judge Curtis Polk
Smart, the Libertarian who has been arrested twice - in two separate elections he was running in - will appear soon before Democrat Curtis Polk of precinct 3 (east Waxahachie district). He'll discuss his case live on The Ellis County Observer Show.
WorldNetDaily.com
My friend Kellie Robinson - a very beautiful, yet talented reporter for The Ellis County Press - was recently offered a freelance position with WorldNetDaily.com, the most widely read conservative-independent news site in the nation. This is huge. We're very proud of Kellie. Who knows, maybe now The Ellis County Press will get their news department in gear and cover what needs to be covered...in case anyone missed it, here's a running count of stories that still haven't been touched by our county papers. The Leslie Davis case was even talked about on a national radio show last night...not to keep bashing and bashing here, but a church page column by Bill Riley was published the second straight week; it was the same column.
9 comments:
Polk is going to be on the show...well, of course. He'll fit right in with your group. I'd listen, except I'd rather not.
Riley likely submitted the same column twice. Sorta like he coasts through his day job, for which I pay his salary.
Wonder how much his extra job pays?
you might have wanted to actually use Sims' full quote, because what you've put here is out of context and therefore libelous. Sims' statement was actually about the county judge wanting to do a road bond instead of raising taxes.
Actually it is the Mayor of Bardwell urinating in a woman's yard, and in front of other citizens on other occasions, one of which got to see it from her front porch while he was on the side of the road.... Just to clarify, it isn't a one time deal.
What happened with the show? It was really lame, don't you think about what you are going to say ahead of time. Half the show was full of drawn out "uh"s and the other half was so full of unsubstantiated rumor that it sounded childish. Why would you set yourself up to look so foolish? Get it together or get someone else to do it for you. Does someone else write for you because you sure can't talk.
Kellie Robinson tried to keep things going but your agenda was in the way....yes we know, you're there to promote yourself, but it deflects from the topic, which you barely touched on.
Seriously... tell the whole story for once.
It’s budget time in Ellis County again and we still do not have any budget priorities established that I’m aware of. This will be my third county budget to consider and the commissioners’ court still has not established a plan of action -- by this I mean a priority list.
I do not understand how a department head can plan and submit a budget without any specific guidelines or expectations from the commissioners’ court or budget officer. I also find it strange that no one wants to talk about setting guidelines, expectations and benchmarks to help determine need and demand. Each time I have brought this up in court it has been shot down with the excuse that planning would be premature.
“Baloney.”
We must plan, we must set expectations and priorities and we must be good stewards of the people’s money in all departments.
As the commissioner of precinct 3, I have witnessed first hand that this year has been particularly tough on our county roads, not just because of the rains (42.5-inches in Five Points), not just because of the drought we’ve had over the past several years, but primarily because of poor planning.
I have mentioned before that the roads in Ellis County where built to handle a John Deere Model 60 tractor, a two-row plow, an Oldsmobile and a half ton pickup. When they were built they worked great and served their purpose.
Momma went to town on a gravel road once maybe twice a week not two to four times a day. Dad drove down the gravel road to the field and the only other car on the road was the postal carrier, who always waved, even if he did not know you. Very few had air conditioning and even fewer had a television but they all worked hard, helped their neighbor and only wanted their government to arrest the criminals.
As we all know, things have changed.
Today, people are still working hard but it’s not on the farm anymore, it is 20 to 70 miles from home. The postal carrier cannot wave anymore because they must stop every 150 feet due to the number of homes and dangerous brick mailboxes. And instead of that John Deere tractor that weighs 2.5 tons, we now have a trash truck that weighs around 32.5 tons and we’re now averaging over 2,200 vehicles per day, per road in Precinct 3.
So times are changing and we must change and refocus our efforts with wise planning.
Our planning must consist of prioritizing, setting benchmarks and creating countywide road and bridge policies that will enable more efficient use of your money. The solution is not in simply creating new funding mechanisms such as Shadow Tolls, Pass Through Financing and/or Road Districts. All these will simply come at a higher cost to the Ellis County taxpayer. And while I admit, some of these solutions may be needed, they will not solve the problem. We must start refocusing on the importance of maintenance and operations as well as capitol improvements.
We’ve seen in our county facilities as well as our county roads what poor M&O will do.
The rains of this spring have shed even more light on what poor M&O will do to the roads.
Sure, planning ahead costs money, as does M&O, but under the circumstances the roads must become a high priority and so other departments may need to wait. As a court, we must slow down a little and take a closer look at what our priorities should be countywide rather than wait till our hands are tied and there is no other option than coming to the taxpayers again requesting a multi-million bond election.
GOD Bless and Peace,
Heath Sims
heath.sims@co.ellis.tx.us
hey, jackass leave my man sims alone. I have never posted here before and if you continue to talk crap about the only commissioner that is for the voters, I will be forced to not visit your site. HEATH SIMS FOR COUNTY JUDGE, HOW DOES THAT SOUND
Joey, you know I build the church page and I went back 5 weeks in our paper so if you are talking about The Ellis County Press running the same Riley column 2 weeks in a row you would be wrong. You need to start getting your facts straight and be careful how you say things because I swear one day you are going to get sued yet again and that time you more than likely won't be able to get out of it.
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